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GENERAL QRAISTT. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year ISOS, by Ph. von BOBT, in the Clerk's 
Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Southern District of New York. 



To General jJ. p>. Prant, jJ. p. ^. : 

General : 

The " New-York World " of the 24tli of March, 
1868, oontaius a cominunication which calls attention to an 
Army Order of youi'S therein re-printed, the contents of which 
are of so extraordinary a character, that nothing short of an 
emphatic denial of its authenticity on your part might have 
been expected. You have, however, left it unnoticed, and thus 
justified the assumption that you acknowledge the authorship 
of the same. Here it is : 

Headquarters 13th Army Corps, ] 
Department of Tennessee, } 
Oxford, Miss., December 17, 1862. J 
General Orders — l^o. 11. 
The JEWS, AS A CLASS, violating every regu- 
lation of trade established by the Treasury Depart- 
ment Orders, are liereby expelled from the Depart- 
ment icithin tiventp-four liours from the receipt of this 
order ly Post Commanders. They will see that 
ALL THIS CLASS OF PEOPLE are furnished 
with passes and required to leave, and any one 
returning after such notification, shall be arrested 
and held in confinement until an opportunity occurs 
of sending them out as prisoners, unless furnished 
with permission from these headquarters. No 
passes AviU be given THESE PEOPLE to visit 
these headquarters for the purpose of making per- 
sonal application for trade permits. 

BY ORDER OF MAJOR-GENERAL GRANT. 



6 

If you had returned, General, like so many brave soldiers, 
after the fatigues of your bloody campaigus, to your home, 
proud iu the possession of yoiu^ laurels ; if, like thousands of 
your comrades in arms, you had hung up yoiu- sword, and 
thenceforth followed the pursuit of the husbandman, the mer- 
chant, or the lawyer, the criticism of your army-orders would 
have been a useless task, for they would have disappeared 
from publicity along with your person, without leaving a trace 
behind them. 

But fiite had reserved for you a different destiny. You 
became the great instrument in the hands of Providence, which 
overthrew tlie rebellion ! ]t was you who conducted that frat- 
ricidal war to a glorious end ! You are the hero whom history 
will know as the man who swept the accursed institution of 
slavery forever from the free and blessed soil of this continent ! 

The great result which you obtained for the history, for 
the civilization of the world at the point of your sword, has 
made you, next to the President of the United States, Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the armies of this nation for life-time. 

You have been successful, you have been fortunate ! 

It is foreign to our present purpose, to subject the history 
of your successes to a closer scrutiny. This is not, indeed, the 
occasion to examine with critical analysis, your merit as a com- 
mander, your military capacity, in a word, the means by 
which you achieved the great result. ^Iiether it actually was 
your own merit, or, rather that of your Generals, whether it 
was the weight of the unlimited means which the nation placed 
at your disposal, or whether it was the heroic bravery of your 
armies, whose hecatombs were sacrificed in your trenches and 
exploded mines, which led to the end, may remain unnoticed 
for the present. In how far, finally, you may have been fa- 
vored by that accident, which left you at the head of affairs, 
after Scott, McDowell, McClellan, Halleck, Pope, Burnside, 
Hooker, Meade, and others had been cast aside, and the nation 
was weary of change, need not be examined here. 

Enough, we have the results. You stand before us, a 
hero, a giant, in bold relief above the heads of the people : you 
have been nominated a candidate for election as President of 
the United States. 



Your military genius we can, at present, afford to pass over j 
the war is, tliauk God, ended ; and we pray that a beneficent 
Providence may forever avert renewed bloodshed. But you 
are now standing before us in a new capacity. You have 
sheathed your sword, and you come before the nation as a 
statesman, you now aspire to the proud position of Chief Mag- 
istrate of a community of thirty odd millions of people. And 
here your military qualifications, be they never so eminent, 
cannot exclusively serve you as a recommendation. 

If the dignity of a President of the United States is not to 
dwindle down to a mere name and shadow, if the Constitution, 
under which the nation has acquired its present greatness, to 
the admiration, to the envious astonishment of the world, is to 
be preserved, we require for this exalted station a well-tried 
statesman ; a worthy bearer of its heavy responsibilities ; above 
fill, a pure, a noble, a great character. 

You will, therefore, no doubt, approve. General, of our 
desire to enlighten our minds as far as possible, as to your 
statesmanlike qualifications, a desire which is but natural and 
legitimate, for citizens who are anxious to exercise their fran- 
chise in a conscientious and intelligent manner. 

But, unfortunately for this important, this momentous 
■question, there is an almost entire lack of material which 
might afford us any light for our object. You, General, have 
deemed it proper against all usage, against all tradition, to 
wrap yourself in an impenetrable silence, thus leaving your 
views, your opinions, and your priucii^les involved in utter 
darkness. 

Whether this be simply the custom of the taciturn but en- 
ergetic warrior, whether it be the cautious proceeding of the 
shrewd dii)lomatist, who adheres to the doctrine of using his 
language only to conceal his thoughts, or whether it be, as your 
-enemies maintain, the stupefaction of an habitual profligate, 
laboring under a chronic sottishness, produced by the fumes of 
whiskey and tobacco, that. General, is up to the present an un- 
solved enigma to us. 

It becomes, therefore, ouf imperative duty, all the more 
carefuUj- to subject your actions, yom* utterances in unguarded 
moments, and especially your written documents to a searching- 
examination. 



8 

Your proceeding on the occasion of the surrender of the 
secretaryship of the War Department was to say the least of 
it, of a very equivocal character. In the differences between 
the President and yourself consequent upon that event, you 
have indeed suffered a most signal moral defeat. For in the 
face of the unanimous written testimony of five cabinet officers, 
a combined testimony, which gave a flat contradiction to your 
assertions, nobody can entertain any further doubts as to the 
veracity of the President. It is said that your demeanor on 
the occasion of a cabinet council during which you were ques- 
tioned by the President in reference to your breach of faith in 
surrendering the War Office to Mr. Stanton, was expressive of 
so much contrition, that this alone was equivalent to an ac- 
knowledgment of your guilt. They say that you stood there, 
looking wonderfully small, the picture of abashed confusion, in 
fact like a school-boy who had been caught napping, stammer- 
ing forth some unintelligible excuses. If this accoimt were 
true, the conclusion might be drawn from it to your honor, that 
so fiir you have acquired no great perfection in the ambiguous 
game of diplomacy, and that it is not too late for you to with- 
draw from the field of politics, a field on which you have made 
an unfortunate debut and on which you are sure to end with a 
deplorable fiasco. 

But these events transpired at a time when your nomina- 
tion for the Presidency was an acknowledged fact ; you had 
already thrown yourself body and soul into the arms of the 
radical party ; you were wincing already under the lash of their 
fanatical leaders. 

Not that in the contemplation of these circumstances any 
mitigation of your guilt could be found ; not because a deeper 
investigation of them would exonerate you in any way, shall 
we forego a closer scrutiny on this occasion, but because we 
have to deal with a document which emanated from your own 
pen and went forth to the world over your signature on the 17th 
December, 1862 : Your famous army order in regard to the 
Jews ! — a document which furnishes a better guide to your char- 
acter, to the standard of your education, to your sense of jus- 
tice, to your humanity, to your understanding of the founda- 
tions on which the nation has become great, to your qualifi- 
cation for the Presidential chair, which throws a stronger 
light finally on the mind and on the heart of the man Grant,, 
than the most intimate study of your life could procure. 



9 

For tliis army order was issued by you, General, at a time 
when you had as yet no aspirations to a pohtieal career. At 
that period, now nearly six years ago, you, as little as the world, 
could have anticipated what was in store for you in the future. 
Long before the battles of Fort Donaldson, Vicksburg, in the 
Wilderness and before Eichmond, had been fought, — battles in 
which the fortune of war smiled upon your arms, consequently 
long before the remotest prospect of your present claims had 
dawned upon you, — at that time you gave yourself as you were, 
at that time you were free from all calculating restraints ; the 
anticipated and coveted votes of your fellow-citizens had not 
cast their fetters about you. 

But for this very reason the above-quoted document of that 
period may serve as the real expression of your innermost na- 
ture, as the the true reflexion of your soul ; for this reason your 
General Orders No, 11 is so valuable for the study of your char- 
acter and for the accomplishment of our piu?pose. 

Let us then subject it to a closer examination. 

It appears that the regulations of trade established by the 
orders of the Treasiu-y Department had been violated. It cer- 
tainly was no less your right, than it became your duty to 
enforce these orders, and to i)unish the \dolators. 

Who then were these violators ? That of course had to be 
ascertained in the first instance ! 

A number of merchants were present with the army for the 
purpose of trading with the soldiers, whom they supplied with a 
variety of articles both of necessity and luxury, highly welcome 
to them. The majority of these merchants were Christians, 
probably of various denominations, and no doubt Presbyterians, 
Methodists, Eoman Catholics, Baptists and whatever other 
sects there may be, down to the Spiritualists, who are enjoying 
the free exercise of their religious practices in this country, 
were represented amongst them. 

Natiu-ally also a proportionate number of Jews, who con- 
stitute a considerable part of the trading community in Amer- 
ica, were among the number of these merchants. 

In what manner now any< connection can be established 
between the various creeds of these individuals and the infrac- 
tions of the orders regulating the mode of trading with the army, 
must remain an unfathomable riddle to every impartial enquirer. 



10 

It would liavo been a conspira-cy alike wonderful and in- 
sane, if the members of any one of the above-named religious con- 
fessions, had combined for the purpose of violating the trade 
regulations I What interest could have united, say for instance 
the Baptists, to resort to such an unusual mode of action? 
What, for instance, could have induced the Methodists, Presby- 
terians, Eoman Catholics, or — Jews, among the merchants, in 
their quality as religious communities, to combine as a body 
against the trading orders of the Treasury Department I 

To these questions you will have to owe us the answer ! 

But if there exists no imaginable bond which could have 
united any given religious brotherhood for combined action in 
the direction of trade, then to single out any one of these broth- 
erhoods at random — no matter of what denomination — from 
the mass of the traders, and to visit the punishment due to the 
crimes of individuals amongst their number on the whole com- 
munity to which they accidentally happen to belong, becomes in 
the estimation of every healthy intellect an actof unparralleled 
injustice. 

That, General, was the remarkable remedy which you ap- 
plied for the preservation of the orders of the Treasury De- 
partment ! 

Instead of searching out the guilty individuals, punishing 
them and preventing a repetition of their crime, you have con- 
demned the innocent with the guilty, and you have thus de- 
graded the action of a judge into a deed of brutal and vindic- 
tive cruelty. The legitimate object of upholding the law and 
protecting it from violation in the future, you have thus entire- 
ly lost sight of ; for in the case in question there must have 
been transgressors of the law amongst the unpunished sects 
quite as well as among the one which you picked out at hap- 
hazard for punishment. 

We venture positively to assert that in the civilized world 
of the i^resent century no parallel can be found to your proce- 
dure. 

But in the country to wh'ich we are proud to belong where 
every citizen holds the great principle that equality before the 
Law is the inalienable right oi every man ; where, as a conse- 
quence of our great war, the half brutish uegTo now participates 



11 

in this great blessing-, for whose sake the Vaw has actually been 
made to act backwards, in that country your action must alike 
provoke and disgust every spectator. 

We confess that we are at a loss for expressions properly 
to characterize your conduct in this affair, and we do not know 
whether to be more astounded at the ignorance, the injustice 
or the cruelty which manifests itself in your edict of 17th De- 
cember, 18G2. You acted at the dictates of a coarse instinct, 
of a low nature, protected by tlie irresponsibility of a military 
commander, unfettered at that time by any thought of a politi- 
cal career. 

We have exposed the glaring injustice of your order only 
generally. The utter iniquity of the same must be so evident 
to every impartial and thinking American, who is worthy of 
this proud name, that it cannot be deemed necessary to enter 
upon the matter more in detail, than we have done. In fact 
the document bears its own condemnation on its face. 

The victim now of your mediaeval thirst for oppression 
became according to mediaeval examples — the Jews ! 

In searching the whole history of the Jews, we do not find 
an analogous case to the one before us, later than the year 1241 : 
that is, more than six centuries ago. At that remote period 
we meet with an occurrence of which we read with astonish- 
ment and abhorrence, but which bears a remarkably strong re- 
semblance to the one in hand. King Henry III of England, 
one of the worst and most cruel Monarchs of that country pun- 
ished and fined the Jews of London, in the sum of twenty thou- 
sand marks or perpetual imprisonment, for a crime which the 
Jews of Korwich had committed. The chronicle mentions, fur- 
ther, that " the whole reign of this King was but a repetition of 
acts of the basest extortion and trumped up charges against 
his subjects." In order to further illustrate the barbarous cus- 
toms of tbat period, we will simply add, that i^risouers of war 
were then drawn and quartered alive. 

To you then. General Grant, it has been reserved to revive 
those scenes of dark and bloody ages in this our nineteenth 
century, and that in the United States of America, a country 
which calls itself the most enlightened in the world, and which 
is held up to the oppressd nations of the Old World as the 
asylum of freedom ! 



12 

The insulting- and contemptuous mode of expression con- 
tained in joav General Orders :S"o. 11 alone, would suffice to 
characterize the spirit of its author, if even its contents were 
less barbarous. You say therein: 

" The JEWS, AS A CLASS, violating," &c. 
Again : 

" ALL THIS CLASS OF PEOPLE are furnished," &c. 
And again : 

"1^0 passes will be given to THESE PEOPLE," &c. 

Tou presume, General Grant, to stigmatize the Jews in 
America as a CLASS, and to grossly insult them as a total ! 
but you did not know. Sir, when you attacked them as a 
CLASS, you really in your ignorance did not know what you 
were doing ! 

For we are obliged to assume that you are ignorant of the 
history and the traditions of a people, whom you thus under- 
took to disgrace ; we must sui)i)ose that you are ignorant of the 
part they have played in the civilization of the world, of the 
numerous events which illustrate their greatness and their 
loyalty — that you are ignorant, in short, of what is known to 
all the world besides ; for without such total ignorance we can 
hardly imagine that even you would have wantonly done the 
thing you did ! 

We regret that the narrow compass of a paper like this 
does not permit us to enlighten you Avith the completeness to 
which the grateful subject invites, and that we must restrict 
ourselves to giving you a few short quotations from writers 
whose authority you will possibly respect. 

The Eev. H. H. Milman, Dean of St. Paul's, a celebrated 
Christian Divine, opens the first chapter of his History of the 
Jews, in the following strong terms : 

" The Jews, without reference to their religious belief, are 
among the most remarkable people in the annals of mankind." 

Miss Hannah Adams, a lady of Boston, who was active in 
the conversion of the Hebrews, wrote about them, half a cen- 
tury ago, in her History of tlie Jews : 

" To them we are indebted for the Scriptures of the New 
as well of the Old Testament; to them were given the prophecy 



13 

and power of working miracles ; from them were derived an 
Ulustrions train of i)ropliets and apostles. To use the lan- 
guage of an inspired writer, ' To tlieni pertaineth the adoption 
and the glory, the service of God, and the promises, and of 
them as concerning the flesh Christ came.' " 

Yes, indeed, a truly remarkable people ; a people distin- 
guished by an extraordinary singleness and tenacity of pur- 
pose, an indomitable strength of character, by a wonderful 
power of intellect ; great alike under all the varied circum- 
stances of prosperity and adversity, which fell to their lot during 
an existence of over fifty centuries. The first emigrants and set- 
tlers, the first agriculturists, the pioneers of civilization — for 
Abraham destroyed the images of idolatry — they became great 
warriors and conquerors. In peace, they were the great ci^il- 
izers of the world, a mission which seems almost to have been 
specially entrusted to them, for their constant wanderings 
bringing them in contact with all the nations of the globe, both 
ancient and modern, they absorb and diftiise continually the 
culture of all, thus promulgating civilization on their track 
wherever they go. Under adversity, when it came, strong and 
faithful to their God, no reverses ever dismayed, no oppression 
ever daunted them. Far down the ages that are past, their 
history is bright with instances of romantic gallantry against 
their enemies, of their resistance to oppression, of their tri- 
umphs over misfortune. Joseph fell into a slavery in a strange 
country — he became a ruler in the land of his captivity. Famine 
drove the sons of Jacob from their homes and country — and 
they gave a government and a dynasty to Egypt. Pharaoh 
reduced them to bondage, but the hand of Israel's God was 
stretched out, and Egypt mourned in darkness and desolation 
the wickedness and folly of her King. In the hour of their 
exodus from the land, when the tumultuous waves of the Eed 
Sea lay in front, and a host of enemies in hot and blood-thirsty 
pursuit pressed close behind — the waves which threatened to 
become their graves, receded from their path and stood a wall 
to guard their deliverance and to engulf their pursuers. Thus 
Israel was redeemed from Egypt, to continue the mission of 
the Patriarchs, to play the part in history which Providence 
had entrusted to its hands, and to begin a grand, marvelous 
and eventful career as a nation. From that day to this the 
Jews have continually triumphed fxer every disaster. From 
adversity they always extracted greatoess : from oppression they 
ever derived sti-ength. Even the captivity of Babylon which 
swept them far away from the smoking ruins of their liomes 



14 

and tbeir altars into a distant and hostile land, did not dis- 
courage and could not destroy them. The Temple was rebuilt, 
and once more the walls of Jerusalem raised their embattled 
towers to the skies. The Eoman and Moslem iuA^asions and su- 
premacy drove the Jews finally from their country, and scat- 
tered them broadcast upon the face of the earth, but still they 
subsist, a numerous and thriving- people; and wherever civil- 
ization has obtained a foothold, there they are to be found and 
their influence is to be felt. In the middle ages, devoting them- 
selves to the pursuit of commerce, they became the financiers 
of the world, and supi»lied the funds with which the wars of the 
Crusades were carried on. Growing powerful by their Avealth, 
they were often marked out for the spoil of the government or 
the people, and then their genius, in order to render fortune in- 
visible, produced the wonderful invention of bills of exchange, 
a device, like the art of printing, become too familiar to bead- 
mired. In the science of medicine they have been eminent from 
very remote ages, and gradually they have grasped every branch 
of ait and science, and distinguished themselves amongst their 
first votaries. Indeed, it is acknowledged reluctantly by some, 
but imanimously by all historians, that they have been the chief 
agents in the civilization of Europe. They have gone amongst 
all nations, and have ever contributed to the wealth and glory 
of the people with whom they have dwelt ; they have lived in 
every country, and obeyed the laws under which they lived j 
they have fought and bled under every flag whenever the coun- 
try of their adoption called upon them : in England, in Holland, 
in France, in Germany, and history has never recorded the 
name of a traitor Jew. Gradually, and as they emerged by dint of 
their distinguished talents from oppression and a comparative 
obscimty, their persecutions ceased, and the French revolution 
of 1790 — that event by which all that Avas antiquated and in- 
iquitious in the old institutions of Europe, was shattered to the 
earth — broke their fetters, and, upheld by such men as Mirabeau 
and Eabaut St. Etienne, they were recognized as Iree citizens, 
and obtained equal rights in all civilized communities. 

Thus the calamities which had befallen the Jews since their 
dispersion ceased to exist, and since then the distinctions which 
had seperated them for centuries from other nations, but which 
were produced rather by their observances than by their con- 
fession, had disappeared ent|^ely. Since that time they have 
gained a wonderful prominence, for they stand foremost at 
present in every pursuit of life. The first students in every 
branch of science and literature, the fii-st statesmen, the first 



15 



lawyers, the first financiers, the first merchants, the first artists 
in every branch have emanated from their ranks. And. if in a 
country where few persons can trace their pedigree beyond 
their grandfather, antiquity and jnirity of race is a title to con- 
sideration, we may, according- to the Eev. Mr. Milman, also add 
they are of the best blood, for he says, in speaking of them in 
his celebrated work : " They are perhaps the only unmingled 
race which can boast of high antiquity." 

France mourned only lately the demise of her Minister of 
Finance in the person of a Jew ; England, great, haughty, 
powerful as she is, and one of the most enlightened nations of 
the world, has placed the helm of her government in the hands 
of a Jew ; and a Jewish banker has held for years, and holds at 
the present moment in his control the wealth of the world, and 
with it wields the destinies of nations! 

So much as to the status of the Jews in the old world! and 
now for America! 

We need not dilate in vainglorious self-praise on their record 
in this country, for unanimous would be the verdict in their fa- 
vor if the votes of the nation were taken on the question. 

Eeligious, loyal, industrious, thrifty, benevolent, sober,, 
they stand recognized in society, and by the nation, as the 
models of good and virtuous citizens. Look at your criminal 
records, and see whether you find any Jews implicated in 
crime, or, if at all, in what proportion to their number ! A 
Eichmond magistrate thus speaks of the Jews, and his testi- 
mony may find a x)lace here : 

" I was Commonwealth Attorney of the City of Eichmond 
for twenty-one years, and in that long interval, I only 
prosecuted three Jews, and two of them were most honorably 
acquitted, there being not a particle of evidence to sustain the 
charges. During my fourteen years of service as a magistrate, 
only one Jew was before me for trial, and he was acquitted. 
In that long period, I do not remember ever having application 
for public charity from any individual of either sex or any age,, 
belonging to that faith, and so far as I am aware, no Jewish 
child has ever received the benefits of our tree schools, for 
which their parents without m^^ur pay their taxes." — (Na- 
tional Freemason.) ^ 

And their record during the war stands equally favorable. 
^^ You, General, know better than any man, that their bones are 



i 



10 

bleaching on every battle field ; you know that entire compa- 
nies of Jews marched to the front and stood the brunt of the 
battle with unshaken bravery; you know that many distin- 
'guished oflicers in both branches of the service were Jews. 
For their faith did not interfere with their patriotism! they 
jfelt as American citizens should feel, and as such they came 
Iforward and loyally did their duty ! 

' And as American citizens — if on no other ground — are 
they entitled to that respect which you have refused them ! 
Your wanton insult does not degrade them in the eyes of the 
nation, much less in their own ; but the disgrace you sought to 
impute by your iniquitous General Orders 'No. 11 falls back 
upon yourself ! 

For, as American citizens, they now reject your nomina- 
tion. As American citizens, they tell you that they consider 
you unfit for the first office of this Government, that you are 
unAYQrthy of the dignity of a President of the United States ! 

A i)erilous time may be in store for this country ; gTcat 
power may have to be entrusted to the hands of a President, 
and what would become of the nation if a man presided over 
her destinies who goes back to King Henry III. of England 
for his model ! 

And as to your insult to the Jews as a religious brother- 
hood, to a whole people who have not been outraged for the 
fault or crime of a few of its members in so shocking a manner, 
since the days of Ham an, we have only one word to say to you : 

As a CLASS, you have stigmatized and expelled us ! As a 
CLASS, we rise up and vote against you, like one man ! 

We are numerous, we are influential, we are wealthy, we 
are diffused over the whole continent, we are as one familj^ ; 
wherever our influence reaches, every Jew — no matter of what 
political part}' — every Jew, with the votes he can command, 
will endeavor to defeat, and mth God's blessing, will defeat 
you! 

With this assurance, jn the name of all American Jews, I 

have the honor to sign myself, General, 

'^l 
V Jours, obediently. 



iNTew-York, June, 1868. 



A JEW. 



